Hockey and the sea

I considered driving to Charleston, South Carolina this weekend to watch the Stingrays take on the Cincinnati Cyclones in the ECHL conference finals. But for several reasons, the biggest being I needed a longer vacation from hockey, I didn't go. Instead, today I went to the Georgia Aquarium. And wouldn't you know, they have stringrays there.


I never thought the stingray was a very fearsome mascot, but I take that back now. He looks pretty ominous, doesn't he?

There were a lot of hockey mascots actually.


Beyond the penguins, they also had an octopus (for the Red Wings) and starfish (Dallas Stars). OK, that last one was a tiny stretch.


Here's a river otter with his trainer. They have them do tricks like dogs -- sit, stand, turn around, etc. Pretty cute. If you're saying, yeah that's cute, but no one named a hockey team the otters, you're wrong. There's the OHL Erie Otters.


Finally, the alligators, the mascot of the ECHL Florida Everblades. I am not a fan of anything that resembles a snake, and as far as I'm concerned, alligators are snakes with legs. Thankfully there was thick glass between me and them.

Off now to watch the Detroit/Dallas game and do a bit of Memorial Cup-related work. I've already started writing the 2003 Thrashers draft evaluation, the five-year retrospective we do every year, so you can probably expect that next.